A worksite, such as a mining site, a construction site, or the like, will typically involve a multitude of machines moving throughout the worksite and performing a variety of tasks. For instance, multiple haul trucks may be used to move material between an excavation zone and a dumping zone. Many of the machines may be heavy, slow to stop, and offer poor visibility for the machine operator to perceive other machines moving about the worksite. Accordingly, there is a significant risk of collision between the machines.
One method of collision avoidance is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,477,021 (the '021 patent). The '021 patent discloses a system and method for providing a proximity warning relating to a machine operating at a worksite. In order to provide such a proximity warning, the position of obstacles (e.g., machines, objects, personnel) at a worksite is tracked and a safe zone is defined around the machine. In one aspect, if an obstacle is at the edge of or within the machine's safe zone, a proximity warning is provided to the machine operator.
Although the '021 patent describes a system and method of proximity detection and warning, the system and method may be unsuitable to worksites involving a large number of machines since the method provides no means for excluding one or more of the machines or other obstacles from the proximity warning determination. As the number of machines or other obstacles at a worksite increases, the method and system of the '021 patent may be unable to efficiently track all of the machines or other obstacles and determine whether a proximity warning should be provided for each machine or other obstacle. Due to the computational effort required in such a determination and resulting delay, the system and method may be unable to provide a proximity warning in sufficient time to avoid a collision. These and other shortcomings are addressed by this disclosure.